New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on March 1 blamed its defeat in Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections on "disunity" and dissidence in the party ranks in the state, forcing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and other top party brass to meet on March 2 to analyse the rout.

Accepting the defeat with "humility", party president M Venkaiah Naidu said the party, however, continued to stand by hindutva as "it is the soul of India".

Talking to reporters after taking stock of the poll outcome with party colleagues, including Advani, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and party general secretaries, Naidu said, "Losing one election and winning another is not a setback to the party. It is like a one-day match series where you lose one but winning the series is more important."

He asserted that the defeat "will not have any effect on BJP at the national level. It will not demoralise our cadres and we would take steps to resolve the intra-party problems and this will be discussed by the party in detail".

Elaborating on the causes for the defeat, he said, "Even before the elections, I noticed that time was too short to bring unity at the local level though there was unity at the top level," apparently referring to the patch-up between Chief Minister P K Dhumal and Union Minister Shanta Kumar.

However, he said the party had on the other hand opened its account in the North East, winning three seats in Nagaland and its ally Naga People's Front (NPF) coming out with a clear majority.

PTI